Skyway Expansion: Forgotten Urban Core Neighborhoods

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority's (JTA's) plan to replace the Skyway with a system featuring autonomous vehicles called the 'Ultimate Urban Circulator' (U2C) would expand the system into some coveted areas near Downtown. More controversially, it also calls for a new, multi-million dollar bridge over the St. Johns. But by focusing primarily on trendy neighborhoods, JTA misses a golden opportunity to serve (and spark revitalization in) the dense black neighborhoods surrounding Downtown where residents already rely on transit.

Reaching people

The current Skyway expansion proposal combined with a 2010 census population density and racial demographic map.

The current conceptual route for an expanded Skyway focuses largely on reaching a few existing proposed developments and trendy neighborhoods. Hotspots like Riverside, Brooklyn, San Marco, and Springfield would all receive extensions, as would some areas ripe for new development like the Stadium District. This proposal focuses almost entirely on choice riders - relatively well-off people with cars who sometimes choose to use transit. But while it has the makings of a great circulator for shuttling urban bobos between rooftop bars, the plan is missing a major opportunity: reaching people who already rely on JTA to get around.

A conceptual illustration showing how savings from axing the proposed river crossing could be used to extend the system further into adjacent districts like Myrtle Avenue (Durkeeville) and A. Philip Randolph Boulevard (Eastside).

Eastside and Durkeeville are two working class, historically black neighborhoods just blocks away from JTA’s proposed Skyway route. Both of these dense, walkable neighborhoods have a comparatively high number of transit-dependent citizens, and both would benefit greatly from infrastructure investment, enhanced mobility, and connectivity. As such, incorporating them is a no-brainer for any transit project. While it’s disappointing to see them not included, fortunately, they and their thousands of transit-reliant citizens could be reached with a just a few minor tweaks.

Durkeeville

Edward Waters University students cross Kings Road in Durkeeville.

Durkeeville is located just west of I-95 from Downtown and Springfield. It’s a dense, walkable gem located just a stone’s throw from JTA’s proposed Springfield line.

Durkeeville’s layout looks like a perfect fit for transit because it was built that way from the beginning. The neighborhood largely grew up around the routes of the North Jacksonville Street Railway, a black-owned streetcar company that once connected Northwest Jacksonville with Downtown. With transit-oriented development intentionally built around the line, Durkeeville emerged as a prosperous African-American neighborhood in the early 20th century. Transit was so important to Durkeeville that its streetcar line was the last one remaining when the city dismantled its streetcar system in the 1936.

Like most of the city’s urban neighborhoods, Durkeeville fell into precipitous decline during the second half of the 20th century. Never valued for its historic urban integrity like nearby Springfield or Riverside-Avondale, the neighborhood remains one of Jacksonville’s densest and most walkable communities, anchored by the likes of Edward Waters College, J.P. Small Park, Stanton College Preparatory School, and the Myrtle Avenue business district. Today a food desert, transit remains crucial to the neighborhood, as many residents rely on public transportation to access retail, jobs, healthcare and other services not present in the community.

Once the home field of the Jacksonville Braves, Durkeeville’s JP Small Field was one of the first sites where integration occurred in baseball’s South Atlantic League. Prior to joining Major League Baseball, Hank Aaron played at JP Small Field and lived nearby in Durkeeville.

As such, Durkeeville would benefit immensely from a partial restoration of premium transit access. Extending the Skyway concept just three-quarters of a mile up 8th Street past the proposed UF Health stop would bring the system to Myrtle Avenue, Durkeeville’s main thoroughfare. With one simple pen stroke on the planning schematics, JTA could bring needed economic development to a distressed neighborhood while simultaneously tapping hundreds if not thousands of guaranteed weekly riders.

Eastside

The Eastside is a remarkable urban neighborhood located just east of Springfield and north of Downtown’s Stadium District. It is home to a commercial district on A. Philip Randolph Boulevard that experienced substantial decline in the 1960s, but which has piqued some investment interest recently due to the fact that it connects directly into the burgeoning sports and entertainment district to its south. One of Jacksonville’s oldest neighborhoods, Eastside is also home to a large collection of shotgun houses that are ripe for a wave of historic restoration like the one now gripping Springfield.

Extending the Skyway’s proposal eastward another three-quarters of a mile from the planned stop at First and Main Streets would bring the system to the Eastside’s commercial strip at A. Philip Randolph, and within easy reach for hundreds of Eastsiders, many of whom do not have consistent access to cars. In addition, this extension would also enhance access to the thousands of seniors and other apartment dwellers in the blocks between the Eastside and Main Street. More ambitiously, a line running along A. Philip Randolf between Eastside and the Stadium District could spark millions in redevelopment on this once-bustling corridor.

Other options

Despite being just west the proposed Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center, the Rail Yard District and the Jacksonville Farmers Market is another example of a unique part of the urban core omitted by current planning efforts.

With the bridge taken off the table and focus put back on serving the transit needs of urban Jaxsons, the possibilities are endless. A modified Skyway could reach west to the Rail Yard District, an old industrial area currently seeing a renaissance of new business investment. It could reach up Main Street further into Springfield, Brentwood, and the urban Northside. It could continue through Durkeeville into Northwest Jacksonville. All it takes is a more intentional look at what Jacksonville really needs while everything’s still on nice, cheap paper.

Editorial by the managing members of Modern Cities. Contact moderncitiesusa@gmail.com for more information.